exodus 6 and 7

Read Exodus 6 and 7 at Bible Gateway.

Hebrew paragraph divisions:

Exo 4:27-6:1 {s} Pharaoh’s response to Moses and the children of Israel
Exo 6:2-9 {p} YHVH to reveal the meaning of His name by redeeming Israel from Egypt
Exo 6:10-12 {p} Speak to Pharaoh + How shall he heed me? (Moses’ question)
Exo 6:13 {s} YHVH commanded Israel and Pharaoh, through Moses and Aaron
Exo 6:14-28 {s} Moses and Aaron the seed of Levi
Exo 6:29-30 {p} I am YHVH (YHVH’s answer)
Exo 7:1-7 {p} Moses to tell the word of the LORD to Pharaoh + Pharaoh will not heed
Exo 7:8-13 {s} Aaron’s rod becomes a serpent + magicians’ rods become serpents
Exo 7:14-18 {s} Warning: the river will become blood
Exo 7:19-25 {p} The river becomes blood + magicians did also

The strong themes of Exodus encountered so far:

Exo 4:27-6:9 {s+p} Pharaoh does not know YHVH, plagues Israel/ YHVH to reveal who He is to Pharaoh and Israel
Exo 6:10-12 {p} Speak to Pharaoh + How shall he heed me? (Moses’ question)
Exo 6:13-30 {s+s+p} I have commanded you through Moses (through Levi); I am YHVH (God’s answer)

Now the teaching tool of the Hebrew paragraph divisions really shine in today’s reading! The next strong theme is:

Exo 7:1-7 {p}

This a summary of what will happen in the next several chapters. God will tell Moses what He commands. Aaron will speak to Pharaoh for Moses. God will harden Pharaoh’s heart and he will not listen. God will multiply His signs and wonders in Egypt, so that he will bring out the hosts of His people by great judgments. And in the end,

“And the Egyptians shall know that I am YHVH, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” Exo 7:5

God is going to reveal who He is, who YHVH is, to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians (and presumably, to Moses and Israel as well) in the events culminating in Israel’s great deliverance. Remember that Pharaoh declared he did not know who YHVH was. Remember that God revealed to Moses that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew God as El Shaddai, but not as YHVH; He emphasized to Moses that He was going to reveal what “I am YHVH” means. So let’s pay close attention also!

The next strong theme is Exo 7:8-25, the weak paragraphs within it are divided:

Exo 7:8-13 {s} Aaron’s rod becomes a serpent + magicians’ rods become serpents
Exo 7:14-18 {s} Warning: the river will become blood
Exo 7:19-25 {p} The river becomes blood + magicians did also

This is not surprising. This first plague is different in its paragraph divisions from the other plagues which follow, and the reason that is, the Scripture is teaching us what “I am YHVH” means. The first weak paragraph reveals that God spoke His word and His command to Pharaoh. God moreover confirmed that it was His word and His command by the sign of the rod becoming a serpent. So God made His will known to the unbelievers, and He confirmed that it was His will to the unbelievers. He gave them an opportunity to repent and to obey. Nothing bad happened to the land of Egypt as yet.

Do you see how fair God is being with those who do not know Him?

In the next weak paragraph, God repeated His word and His command with a stronger warning and a judgment to follow if He is not heeded. The fact that the weak paragraph ends after the instruction, and before anything else happens, reveals that God gave an opportunity to the unbelievers to repent and obey, before the plague actually came upon them.

Do you see how fair God is being with those who do not know Him?

The final weak paragraph of this section, is the actual accomplishment of the judgment warned of. This reveals that YHVH accomplishes His word — as we have learned in God’s dealings with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Genesis, but which the Egyptians do not know, and perhaps even the Israelites of this generation do not know.

Do you see how fair God is being with those who do not know Him? The Egyptians could still get water by digging. So the judgment increased their inconvenience, but it was not life- threatening. Pharaoh could at any time end the inconvenience to his people, by repenting and obeying.

When God said that He would multiply His wonders in Egypt, it is true – He is starting out small, both in awesomeness and severity. We will see God multiplying His wonders in Egypt as we go forward!

For further reading:

exodus 5:2-6:9 chiastic structure 2015 feb 18
exodus 1:1-6:1, the puzzle piece of Moses’ wife and sons 2015 jan 10
Egypt and the Bible (Assoc. in Biblical Research)
The Plagues and the Exodus